The first really hot days of the year bring with them a certain psychology of self-preservation, a mode of inactivity aimed at relaxation and keeping cool. Brooklyn dreamscape quartet Secret Crush simultaneously create a lethargic heatwave, and deliver dampened relief, in their track, “Set Designer,” off their forthcoming Birth EP, set for a cassette release in September via Dazzleship Records (but you can stream it here). Creamy guitar distortion and light tremolo conjure a thick, vaporous oceanside mirage and immediately you can see the heat haze quivering up from an endless sandy asphalt, blurring the sea up front, and everything around. The radiation of tone seems to garble the melody, only momentarily, before lucid soloing pierces through, remaining constant throughout, and setting and resetting a sense of here-and-now escapism, and calming all. Nick Rogers’ bass and Matt Billington’s whispered vocals are a soothing mist carried on light breezes, serenely cool and refreshingly bright. The mix of all instruments and vocals briefly offer a kind of duality of blaring intensity and melodious comfort, before the singing cuts out and time is stretched to liquid eternity in an outpouring guitar solo.
